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Drive Time
A Pulitzer Prize winner explains that little engines power big stories.
By Elissa Jennings
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Tom French of the St. Petersburg Times shares his award-winning writing strategy with editors and teen fellows at the 2005 Youth Editorial Alliance Conference.
PHOTO BY SANDY WOODCOCK
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Someone in the audience speaks up: “So what happens to Carlos?”
Eyes turn attentively to the man at the front of the room, who shakes his head. “I’m not going to tell you yet,” he replies.
Dressed in jeans and an orange Oxford with the sleeves rolled up, Pulitzer Prize winner Tom French moves casually around the Majors Room at the Union Station Hotel in Nashville. He is discussing “13: Life at the Edge of Everything,” a series about the lives of Florida seventh-graders, as part of a presentation on story mechanics for journalists at the 2005 Youth Editorial Alliance Conference.
“It shouldn’t matter to us what happens to Carlos,” he says, referring to one of the boys featured in the series. “And yet, it does.”
French is addressing the quandary that plagues journalists of all ages – what engages and retains the interest of readers? His answer seems simple enough: “There is tremendous power in the unfolding of a story. Every story that we write has an engine inside of it. And that engine … comes down to the question, ‘What happens next?’ ”
However, maximizing the effectiveness of a story’s “engine” requires sensitivity to readers’ desires. “It’s important to watch readers, even if you’re a brilliant writer,” French urges, gesturing emphatically. “Figure out what it is that makes them want to read. … There are so many things that they can do other than read your story.”
French also suggests that writers defy certain traditional journalism practices. For instance, he says that writers should present the “unofficial version” of events to readers – in other words, stories should not be sanitized. “Writing is not genteel,” he says, “because life is not genteel.”
Rather than cleaning up rude language, he adds, preserve original quotes to “capture the beauty and vibrancy of the human voice.” French also encourages the use of open titles and Roy Peter Clark’s “golden coins,” intriguing tidbits of information, citing J.K. Rowling’s popular “Harry Potter” books for their alluring chapter titles and interest-whetting twists.
French says that writers should further harness the engine of a piece by keeping an open mind in the process of observing, “zooming in” on the focus of the work to give readers a sense of direction, and then adhering to that direction. He also suggests “thinking cinematically” and including not only specific, concrete detail but also sensory imagery.
“Make room for little moments,” he advises. “Most of life is those little moments where really big stuff is revealed. Those little moments have power, and they don’t take a lot of room.”
But what of teen writing? How can one encourage young journalists to incorporate these concepts into their writing and produce high-caliber work? French says mentors and editors of youth publications can help students improve by “encouraging them to pay attention to what they care about … and look at how things happening to them, their friends and the kids around them translate into stories.”
In order to write, he adds, “you don’t have to interview an expert at Harvard. The story’s right in front of you.”
Armed with these engines and French’s advice, students and professionals alike can generate pieces that will capture the attention of readers and never let go.
Elissa Jennings, a junior at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tenn., is a correspondent for teenessean at The Tennessean in Nashville.
She can be reached at teenessean@comcast.net .
